The First Vision

¹⁷It no sooner appeared than I found myself delivered from the enemy which held me bound. When the light rested upon me I saw two Personages, whose brightness and glory defy all description, standing above me in the air. One of them spake unto me, calling me by name and said, pointing to the other—This is My Beloved Son. Hear Him!

Joseph Smith—History 1:17 · read it at ChurchofJesusChrist.org

The 1832 account says, “The Lord opened the heavens upon me and I saw the Lord.” His 1838 account states, “I saw two Personages,”

The Church's own words Gospel Topics essay, "First Vision Accounts" · source

Joseph placed either the interpreters or the seer stone in a hat, pressed his face into the hat to block out extraneous light, and read aloud the English words that appeared on the instrument.

The Church's own words Gospel Topics essay, "Book of Mormon Translation" · source

As a young man during the 1820s, Joseph Smith, like others in his day, used a seer stone to look for lost objects and buried treasure.

The Church's own words Gospel Topics essay, "Book of Mormon Translation" · source

¹⁰There shall not be found with you anyone who makes his son or his daughter to pass through the fire, one who uses divination, one who tells fortunes, or an enchanter, or a sorcerer, ¹¹or a charmer, or someone who consults with a familiar spirit, or a wizard, or a necromancer. ¹²For whoever does these things is an abomination to Yahweh. Because of these abominations, Yahweh your God drives them out from before you.

Deuteronomy 18:10-12 (WEB) · context

The youngest was Helen Mar Kimball, daughter of Joseph’s close friends Heber C. and Vilate Murray Kimball, who was sealed to Joseph several months before her 15th birthday.

The Church's own words Gospel Topics essay, "Plural Marriage in Kirtland and Nauvoo" · source

Joseph Smith was sealed to a number of women who were already married.

The Church's own words Gospel Topics essay, "Plural Marriage in Kirtland and Nauvoo" · source

⁴He answered, “Haven’t you read that he who made them from the beginning made them male and female, ⁵and said, ‘For this cause a man shall leave his father and mother, and shall be joined to his wife; and the two shall become one flesh’? ⁶So that they are no more two, but one flesh. What therefore God has joined together, don’t let man tear apart.”

Matthew 19:4-6 (WEB) · context

In 1852, President Brigham Young publicly announced that men of black African descent could no longer be ordained to the priesthood

The Church's own words Gospel Topics essay, "Race and the Priesthood" · source

Today, the Church disavows the theories advanced in the past that black skin is a sign of divine disfavor or curse

The Church's own words Gospel Topics essay, "Race and the Priesthood" · source

²⁸There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free man, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus.

Galatians 3:28 (WEB) · context

The evidence assembled to date suggests that the majority of Native Americans carry largely Asian DNA.

The Church's own words Gospel Topics essay, "Book of Mormon and DNA Studies" · source

²¹Test all things, and hold firmly that which is good.

1 Thessalonians 5:21 (WEB) · context

²And it shall come to pass in the last days, when the mountain of the Lord’s house shall be established in the top of the mountains, and shall be exalted above the hills, and all nations shall flow unto it.

2 Nephi 12:2 · read it at ChurchofJesusChrist.org

²And it shall come to pass in the last days, that the mountain of the LORD’s house shall be established in the top of the mountains, and shall be exalted above the hills; and all nations shall flow unto it.

Isaiah 2:2 (King James Version, 1611) · context

⁹After this manner therefore pray ye: Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name.

3 Nephi 13:9 · read it at ChurchofJesusChrist.org

⁹After this manner therefore pray ye: Our Father which art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name.

Matthew 6:9 (King James Version, 1611) · context

⁴And when ye shall receive these things, I would exhort you that ye would ask God, the Eternal Father, in the name of Christ, if these things are not true; and if ye shall ask with a sincere heart, with real intent, having faith in Christ, he will manifest the truth of it unto you, by the power of the Holy Ghost.

Moroni 10:4 · read it at ChurchofJesusChrist.org

⁹The heart is deceitful above all things and it is exceedingly corrupt. Who can know it?

Jeremiah 17:9 (WEB) · context

¹²There is a way which seems right to a man, but in the end it leads to death.

Proverbs 14:12 (WEB) · context

¹¹Now these were more noble than those in Thessalonica, in that they received the word with all readiness of mind, examining the Scriptures daily to see whether these things were so.

Acts 17:11 (WEB) · context

²²The Father has a body of flesh and bones as tangible as man’s; the Son also; but the Holy Ghost has not a body of flesh and bones, but is a personage of Spirit. Were it not so, the Holy Ghost could not dwell in us.

Doctrine and Covenants 130:22 · read it at ChurchofJesusChrist.org

As man now is, God once was: As God now is, man may be.

The Church's own words Lorenzo Snow, quoted in the Gospel Topics essay "Becoming Like God" · source

²⁴God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.”

John 4:24 (WEB) · context

¹⁹God is not a man, that he should lie, nor a son of man, that he should repent. Has he said, and he won’t do it? Or has he spoken, and he won’t make it good?

Numbers 23:19 (WEB) · context

²Before the mountains were born, before you had formed the earth and the world, even from everlasting to everlasting, you are God.

Psalms 90:2 (WEB) · context

²⁰Then shall they be gods, because they have no end; therefore shall they be from everlasting to everlasting, because they continue; then shall they be above all, because all things are subject unto them. Then shall they be gods, because they have all power, and the angels are subject unto them.

Doctrine and Covenants 132:20 · read it at ChurchofJesusChrist.org

¹And then the Lord said: Let us go down. And they went down at the beginning, and they, that is the Gods, organized and formed the heavens and the earth.

Abraham 4:1 · read it at ChurchofJesusChrist.org

⁸Don’t fear, neither be afraid. Haven’t I declared it to you long ago, and shown it? You are my witnesses. Is there a God besides me? Indeed, there is not. I don’t know any other Rock.”

Isaiah 44:8 (WEB) · context

¹⁰“You are my witnesses,” says Yahweh, “With my servant whom I have chosen; that you may know and believe me, and understand that I am he. Before me there was no God formed, neither will there be after me.

Isaiah 43:10 (WEB) · context

²⁸Now Zeezrom said: Is there more than one God? ²⁹And he answered, No.

Alma 11:28-29 · read it at ChurchofJesusChrist.org

all human beings, male and female, are beloved spirit children of heavenly parents, a Heavenly Father and a Heavenly Mother.

The Church's own words Gospel Topics essay, "Mother in Heaven" · source

³All things were made through him. Without him, nothing was made that has been made.

John 1:3 (WEB) · context

¹⁶For by him all things were created in the heavens and on the earth, visible things and invisible things, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or powers. All things have been created through him and for him. ¹⁷He is before all things, and in him all things are held together.

Colossians 1:16-17 (WEB) · context

⁵⁸Jesus said to them, “Most certainly, I tell you, before Abraham came into existence, I AM.”

John 8:58 (WEB) · context

²³For we labor diligently to write, to persuade our children, and also our brethren, to believe in Christ, and to be reconciled to God; for we know that it is by grace that we are saved, after all we can do.

2 Nephi 25:23 · read it at ChurchofJesusChrist.org

³²Yea, come unto Christ, and be perfected in him, and deny yourselves of all ungodliness; and if ye shall deny yourselves of all ungodliness, and love God with all your might, mind and strength, then is his grace sufficient for you, that by his grace ye may be perfect in Christ; and if by the grace of God ye are perfect in Christ, ye can in nowise deny the power of God.

Moroni 10:32 · read it at ChurchofJesusChrist.org

⁸for by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, ⁹not of works, that no one would boast.

Ephesians 2:8-9 (WEB) · context

⁵But to him who doesn’t work, but believes in him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is accounted for righteousness.

Romans 4:5 (WEB) · context

⁵not by works of righteousness which we did ourselves, but according to his mercy, he saved us through the washing of regeneration and renewing by the Holy Spirit,

Titus 3:5 (WEB) · context

⁸We believe the Bible to be the word of God as far as it is translated correctly; we also believe the Book of Mormon to be the word of God.

Articles of Faith 1:8 · read it at ChurchofJesusChrist.org

²⁸Wherefore, thou seest that after the book hath gone forth through the hands of the great and abominable church, that there are many plain and precious things taken away from the book, which is the book of the Lamb of God.

1 Nephi 13:28 · read it at ChurchofJesusChrist.org

⁸The grass withers, the flower fades; but the word of our God stands forever.”

Isaiah 40:8 (WEB) · context

³⁵Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away.

Matthew 24:35 (WEB) · context